Warlocks

Warlocks are a type of spell-caster, found throughout the Empire. Unlike Wizards, who learn to wield magic as an intellectual exercise (most often under the tutelage of a school funded by the Chancery), or Sorcerers who are born with their magic due to having an extraplanar being somewhere in their ancestry, Warlocks gain their knowledge of magic as pact of a 'pact' (contract or bargain) with some power (called a 'patron').

Power source

In a way, Warlocks 'learn' to use magic through a series of techniques that are superficially similar to that Wizards. In fact many Warlocks own books of rituals. However it is important to note that, unlike Wizards (who go through years of intensive - and regulated - study), Warlocks are taught a few 'shortcuts' to enable them to channel very small amounts of their patron's magical power, or the power of the realm in which they reside. It is important to note that Warlocks do NOT use Arcane Magic; their patron teaches them how to use a specific conduit.

This method of gaining magical knowledge results in Warlocks only having a basic grasp of the full complexity of magic, only knowing a few spells and only being able to cast a limited number of spells before having to rest. Additionally their spells are also usually quite tightly bound to the source of their magic (eg the Infernal realms, the Feywild, the Shadowfell, etc.).

Lastly, the reliance on a patron to continually advance their knowledge of magic makes Warlocks vulnerable to having limited careers in magical study. At almost any time the 'pact' between patron and Warlock could be broken and whilst the Warlock would (presumably) retain knowledge of the conduits taught up to that point, the patron would not be obliged to continue to provide knowledge of new conduits to higher levels of magical power.

Chancery Outlook

As with Sorcerers, the Chancery finds the existence of Warlocks to be both fascinating and worrying. Whilst it is academically interesting that an individual can enter into a 'pact' for something as potentially dangerous as magical power (and Warlocks, unlike Sorcerers, can have a 'pact' with a Divine Power) it is of concern that these people really understand very little of the forces that they play with and that the Chancery has no control over which bit of magical knowledge their 'patron' may suddenly choose to impart knowledge of.

The fact that their power is part of a 'pact' and that 'pacts' can be broken is really the main fact that stops the Chancery from rounding up Warlocks and burning them all at the stake. No Warlock has every come close to matching the diversity and frequency of spell casting that a talented Wizard can, and several spells exist to shut down the power flow from specific planes for a long enough time to render Warlocks - who are source-dependant casters - effectively powerless. Lastly, these 'pacts' seem to be quite rare - implying that their 'cost to power' exchange ratio is something that few people would want to enter into.

At present the Chancery is watching these 'Warlocks' very closely.